Explore the Juventus Story
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A New Band. A New Sound.
When the original Hungária line-up came to an end in 1971, Peter Sipos accepted an invitation from singer and bandleader László Pápay-Faragó to join Juventus.
The following two years would become a short but formative chapter in Peter’s career. As bassist, singer, composer and arranger, he helped transform Juventus into a powerful rock band known for its accomplished musicianship, distinctive vocal harmonies and collaborations with some of Hungary’s leading popular singers.
It was also during the Juventus years that Peter began establishing important musical connections beyond Hungary—connections that would influence the direction of his career for many years to come.
1971–1973
A NEW BEGINNING
From Hungária to Juventus
On 3 April 1971, Peter played his final concert with Hungária’s original line-up at the Láng Machine Factory in Budapest. That same month, at the age of twenty-one, he began rehearsing with Juventus.
The first line-up he joined contained several experienced musicians, but it soon became clear that they and Peter had very different ideas about the band’s future. Peter remained committed to contemporary beat and rock music, while the other musicians wanted to pursue a direction in which he could not see either a clear musical identity or a viable future.
That configuration survived for only a few weeks.
Peter then began helping to build a new Juventus. He invited two of his former Hungária colleagues, Péter Csomós and drummer József Tóth, to join him and Pápay-Faragó.
The band still needed a guitarist. On Csomós’s recommendation, they travelled to a small venue on the outskirts of Budapest to hear a gifted young musician named Tibor Tátrai.
Peter immediately recognised something exceptional in Tátrai’s playing. After working with the brilliant Tamás Barta in Hungária, Peter believed he had discovered another extraordinary guitarist. Within days, Tátrai was recording with Juventus.
FINDING THE BAND
Five Musicians Come Together
Juventus’s line-up changed again when József Tóth unexpectedly left Hungary and settled in California. Faced with concerts and recording commitments but no drummer, the group turned to Attila Csurgay.
The musical understanding between Peter and Csurgay was immediate.
The relationship between bass and drums is the foundation of a rock band, and Peter remembers that he and Csurgay needed very little discussion to find their shared rhythm. A glance, a count of four and the whole group seemed to lock into place.
The resulting Juventus line-up brought together:
László Pápay-Faragó — vocals
Péter Csomós — vocals and keyboards
Tibor Tátrai — guitar
Attila Csurgay — drums
Peter Sipos — bass, vocals and keyboards
Each musician contributed something distinctive. Tátrai brought a bold and unmistakable guitar sound; Csurgay supplied a powerful rhythmic foundation; and the voices of Pápay-Faragó, Csomós and Sipos produced unusually rich three-part harmonies.
For Peter, the vocal blend recalled the sound of Crosby, Stills & Nash, whose music Juventus included in its live repertoire. Combined with the band’s harder rock instrumentation, those harmonies became one of the defining characteristics of the group.
CREATING THE JUVENTUS SOUND
Juventus’s first recording with the new musicians did not become a success. Peter later acknowledged that the band had not yet decided exactly what it wanted to be, and the quality of the recording failed to capture the strength of the musicians.
The next recordings were more assured.
One of the most distinctive songs grew from an idea Tibor Tátrai played for Peter during an informal afternoon session. Sitting together with acoustic guitars, Tátrai introduced an unusual two-chord sequence. Peter immediately began developing a melody around it.
The music acquired a Mediterranean quality, influenced partly by the contemporary sound of Aphrodite’s Child. Peter initially called the piece In Memory of Aphrodite. Lyricist and close friend Péter Tardos subsequently responded to the atmosphere of the music and turned it into a finished ballad.
The recording was issued under Tátrai’s name—although, to the musicians’ amusement, the guitarist’s name was printed incorrectly on the record.
More important than the clerical mistake was the discovery of a recognisable Juventus sound: melodic writing, adventurous guitar work, a solid rock rhythm section and carefully constructed vocal harmonies.
PETER AS COMPOSER AND ARRANGER
Beyond the Bass Guitar
The Juventus years also expanded Peter’s work beyond performing.
He received an increasing number of commissions to arrange and direct music for radio and television. Producer Péter Módos, who became a close and lasting friend, entrusted him with orchestral arrangements and a variety of unusual assignments.
Peter arranged the first radio recording by the Dobai–Muszty duo, contributed as musical director to a recording by the Rajkó Orchestra and worked on a television programme featuring the celebrated American-French jazz organist Rhoda Scott.
These projects demanded skills quite different from those required on stage with a rock band. Peter was increasingly working with larger instrumental forces, shaping arrangements for other artists and thinking about music as a composer and musical director.
At the same time, his own musical interests were widening. A recording of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, performed and conducted by Leonard Bernstein, had introduced him to a world beyond the beat music with which he had made his name. Gershwin led him back towards Liszt, Bach and the classical music he had encountered as a child.
The combination would prove important throughout Peter’s later career: the immediacy and energy of popular music joined to a growing understanding of orchestral colour, harmony and dramatic structure.
WORKING WITH KATI KOVÁCS
A Festival-Winning Collaboration
One of the most important associations of the Juventus period was with the acclaimed Hungarian singer Kati Kovács.
Peter admired not only her exceptional voice but also her warmth and professionalism. Juventus performed with her frequently, both on concert tours and in the recording studio.
Peter composed Mosolyod ittmarad—Your Smile Remains—for Kovács, with lyrics by Péter Tardos. Although the original Hungarian recording was subsequently lost, the song survived in a German-language version recorded for her album in East Berlin.
Their most celebrated collaboration came at the 1972 Táncdalfesztivál, Hungary’s nationally televised popular-song festival.
Kovács, composer Tibor Koncz and lyricist Iván Szenes brought a new song to the Juventus club and asked the band to perform it with her at the festival. Juventus had also qualified with Peter and Tardos’s own song, Lenn a folyónál—Down by the River.
The new Kovács song was originally called Esőváró—Waiting for Rain. Peter felt that the title lacked impact and suggested taking a more memorable line directly from the lyric:
Add már, Uram, az esőt
Give Us Rain, Lord
The title was accepted, but the band also felt that the arrangement needed greater power. Péter Csomós suggested giving the song the force and rhythmic character of the American rock-soul group Rare Earth.
Juventus brought its complete musical identity to the performance: Tátrai’s fearless guitar playing, Csurgay’s formidable drumming and the closely worked voices of Pápay-Faragó, Csomós and Sipos supporting Kati Kovács’s commanding lead vocal.
The song won the Grand Prix of the 1972 Táncdalfesztivál.
Juventus’s own entry, Lenn a folyónál, progressed only as far as the semi-final. Nevertheless, Peter remained proud of it—and decades later it was still remembered as one of the songs associated with the band’s 1972 line-up.
OPENING A DOOR TO BERLIN
Music Across Borders
In August 1972, a production team from East German state television travelled to Budapest to make a youth entertainment programme. Through Péter Módos, Juventus was chosen to represent Hungarian pop music.
The group filmed two songs at distinctive Budapest locations: one beside the Danube, on the steps beneath the Elizabeth Bridge, and another at the Fisherman’s Bastion.
Peter’s fluent German allowed him to form a friendship with Toni Kohlsdorf, the head of the visiting television team. A few weeks later, Kohlsdorf invited him to Berlin.
During a week in the city, Peter began developing relationships with broadcasters and influential figures in the East German music industry. He later regarded those few days as decisive for the following eight years of his career.
The contacts led to work in East Germany for Juventus and Kati Kovács—and subsequently for the re-formed Hungária. They also gave Peter access to the Amiga recording studios and a musical world extending beyond Hungary.
Towards the end of 1972, Juventus travelled to East Berlin to begin recording a German-language album with Kati Kovács. During those sessions Peter learned that Hungária’s music had already found an unexpected audience in East Germany. Három széplány éjszakája, written by Péter Csomós and included on Hungária’s second album, had risen high in the East German charts in its original Hungarian recording.
Peter quietly stored that information away. Before long, it would help determine what happened next.
A CHANGING LINE-UP
Following the 1972 festival and television recording, Tibor Tátrai decided to leave Juventus and join the more progressive Syrius, where he would have the opportunity to work with Jackie Orszáczky.
Peter regretted losing such a gifted musician but understood his desire for new musical challenges. He remained proud that one of Hungary’s most highly regarded guitarists had begun an important early stage of his professional career alongside him in Juventus.
Tátrai was replaced by Zoltán Kékes, then the lead guitarist with Gemini. Kékes quickly learned the repertoire and became an enthusiastic and dependable member of the group.
The band’s reputation was growing. Its hard-edged rock sound and accomplished vocal arrangements attracted interest from other leading singers, while its partnership with Kati Kovács produced frequent performances around Hungary.
Juventus had become much more than Peter’s destination after Hungária. It was a strong and adaptable group with a musical character of its own.
THE END OF JUVENTUS
And the Return of Hungária
At the beginning of 1973, Juventus made three further radio recordings and appeared at the Made in Hungary festival.
After one of the recording sessions, László Pápay-Faragó and Péter Csomós announced that they had accepted entertainment contracts in the West and would be leaving the group.
Peter, Zoltán Kékes and Attila Csurgay suddenly found themselves facing an uncertain future. Although Pápay-Faragó was willing to let them continue using the Juventus name, the remaining musicians knew that the band in its existing form had reached its end.
It was then that Peter remembered what he had learned in East Berlin: Hungária’s music still had an audience there.
He proposed that the three musicians reunite with Miklós Fenyő and bring Hungária back to life.
Before approaching Fenyő, Peter returned briefly to Berlin. He played recordings to his contacts at East German radio and the Amiga record company and asked whether a revived Hungária might interest them. Their response was encouraging. Amiga even suggested that Hungária could complete the unfinished Kati Kovács sessions that Juventus had begun.
Peter returned to Budapest and arranged to meet Fenyő at the Dunapark café. Their relationship had been strained since the original Hungária separated, but the musical opportunity was too important to ignore.
A compromise was eventually reached. Peter insisted that Kékes and Csurgay should come with him from Juventus. Fenyő brought guitarist Antal Gábor Szűcs from his existing group.
In this way, the end of Juventus became the beginning of Hungária’s second chapter.
MORE THAN AN INTERLUDE
Juventus occupied only two years of Peter Sipos’s long career, but its influence extended far beyond that brief period.
It was the band in which he developed a particularly strong partnership between bass, drums and guitar. It allowed him to explore intricate vocal harmonies, compose for leading singers and extend his work as an arranger and musical director.
With Juventus, he participated in one of the defining Hungarian popular-song successes of 1972. Through the band’s television and recording work, he also made the first East German contacts that later helped Hungária establish an international following.
Just as importantly, Juventus brought Zoltán Kékes and Attila Csurgay into Peter’s musical life. When the group ended, Peter carried those relationships—and everything he had learned during the previous two years—into the rebirth of Hungária.
Juventus was not simply the band between two periods of Hungária. It was the place where Peter’s next musical chapter began.